Filipino pedestrians killed themselves PLUS Blog Traffic Love

Okay maybe not all Filipinos. People are gonna go ballistic again with all my generalizing cr*p. I’m not avoiding lawsuits. I’m avoiding idiots in aliases in my comment box as though trying to achieve some form of anonymity.

WALANG TAWIRAN
NAKAMAMATAY

In English, that oh so eloquently translates to “NO PEDESTRIAN CROSSING. POTENTIALLY LETHAL.” Funny, I’ve never seen a No Jaywalking sign of the sort in any other country I’ve been to in my entire life. I’ll bet not even in my past life (wherein I was a filthy rich problogger advocating the interdict of the anti-Christ). I only see that completely harmless yet tremendously easily comprehensible No Jaywalking sign. Some had text, others had symbols. Pardon the text signs, for a significant chunk of the Filipino population cannot understand simple English words, let alone jaywalking.

So the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) had to resort to putting up signs in Tagalog to ensure full comprehension of the signs’ message. Not only that, they also had to put in a little bit of that scary don’t-do-it-unless-you-wanna-die-you-b*tch-LOL factor in them. This is what they came up with:

Crossing the street is potentially lethal in the Third World. Photo courtesy of Alterselves.

See, some Filipinos are very stubborn and hard-headed and are just plain asking for it. By it, I mean getting run over by a motorcycle first, a car second, and finally a 24-wheeler truck and getting pretty chopped up and skinned alive a bit in the process. And by a bit, I mean a lot. (I wonder why I have to use other words to kind of conceal part of my message and then explain the entire thing in the following sentence. This writing style is killing me. And I guess you, too.)

They have this very weird, totally confounding I-wanna-do-it-and-I-couldn’t-care-less-if-I-die-doing-it-you-sl*t kind of mentality and that baffles me to neverland.

How stubborn are they, really? Here are four of the things that they do.

1.) They stand right in front of that ridiculous, attention-seeking cross-here-and-you’re-dead-and-we’ll-bring-you-back-to-life-to-die-again sign, read it, and cross the street anyway.

2.) They look up, see the pedestrian overpass right above them, close their eyes to thank God for blessing them with a bit of shade while crossing the street of death, and still jaywalk anyway.

3.) They reach the island (crossing halfway through), see the fence that the MMDA have put up to prevent jaywalkers from doing their thing, scratch their heads making their dandruff fall, see their shoulders covered in flakes, remember that creepy old Head & ShouldersTV commercial they saw the other day, take down that stupid pink fence that stands in their way, and continue jaywalking. Because. They. Rock. Like. That.

4.) They decide to use the pedestrian lane for once in their lives but cross the street while the light for vehicular traffic says GO. GREEN. RUN OVER ANYONE THAT STANDS IN YOUR WAY. KILL THEM AND FEEL NO REGRET OR GUILT.

I wish I were just kidding, writing this, making stuff up. But NO. They do ALL THESE THINGS. Why? I’m baffled to neverland. And now you are baffled to neverland as well.

I especially hate it when they stop at the corner when it’s red trying to decide whether to cross the street or not, then start crossing as the light turns green and they block your way causing you to stop or try to run them over, but because of the volume you can’t go and then the light changes and you try to get past the crossing but the police stops you because you ran a red light.

Finally, people are intelligent enough to agree with me. I’m not making this stuff up, right? I’m not judging either, right? No, I do a bit of judging. Warranted judging. IT BEATS THE CR*P OUT OF ME why some people get so terribly ticked off by my posts. They’re true. Why don’t they just admit to it instead of flaming in my comment box and wasting my precious non-free bandwidth?

Mahilig kasi tayo sa shortcut eh, but I don’t think it beats the crossing warning at San Diego, it’s situated in the middle of the freeway (where cars go at least 80MPH) to warn those behind the wheels to be careful of crossing “family” here’s link (will tag work here? i’ll try anyways).

i also think it’s the governments fault, or whoever is in authority regarding road safety and stuff, coz have u ol tried using the overpass???it’s so scary… u have ol these beggars, “tambays” and other unearthly creatures hanging around the place.some even sell food up there.kadiri.its a whole diff world up there.makes u wonder, which is safer… using the overpass or risk crossing the nakakamatay road. hehe

[…] Many Filipino pedestrians are suicidal. I guess we’ve established that, haven’t we? And sometimes, just sometimes, I want to be the one to fulfill their dreams of getting butchered and having their bits and pieces scattered on the highway. […]